Southwest Economic Alliance launches broadband initiative

Sometimes it seems internet speeds crawl at a snail's pace. We wait and wait and wait. Getting frustrated, cursing our computers until the page loads properly. That is in a city the size of St. Thomas, but imagine what it would be like on a farm in Southwestern Ontario where dial-up still rules the roost.

Unfortunately, there are still several pockets throughout Southwestern Ontario where high-speed internet is unavailable and in this day and age, that is totally unacceptable said Southwest Economic Alliance (SWEA) President and CEO Serge Lavoie. He is concerned business and economic development potential might be slipping through our fingers as a result.

SWEA is trying to change that by building a case for broadband infrastructure investment and has, or is in the midst, of hiring 30 people to go out into communities in the region to gather information on how technology could be used to attract business to the this part of the province.

Lavoie said there are still several places in Elgin county that have only 1.5mbps download speeds, while in comparison something like Netflix needs a minimum of 6mb to run smoothly.

A pilot study was done in Grey County a year ago to understand where the benchmark for internet speeds stood, and how it would impact communities.

“There was direct evidence that businesses left the community they were in for another community because connectivity was better,” he said. “We we were not maximizing our economic development potential by not having access to high-speed internet.”

Along with SWEA's initiative, the Western Ontario Warden's Caucus is working toward lobbying both the federal and provincial governments to invest in high-speed broadband, or more specifically, a fibre optic network.

“In Australia, the government is building a nationwide fibre optic network that the private sector can use and sell services through,” noted Lavoie. “The entire world is going that way, but unfortunately Southern Ontario isn't. There are parts of larger cities and pockets in Southwestern Ontario that do have high-speed but that work is being done by independent phone companies.”

Lavoie gives an example of a successful community much closer to home, Stratford, a city nearly the same size as St. Thomas. When Smart meters were being installed in Stratford, the city decided to go a few steps further by building its own fibre optic network, and now at any street corner, someone can access wi-fi through a computer, smartphone or tablet.

Stratford then decided to up the ante once again by investing in a University of Waterloo campus that would teach digital media and what resulted was an incubator for several hi-tech companies which led to additional financial investments.

That is where SWEA's initiative is heading, but first they need to reach out to small communities and find out what types of businesses they would attract if they had better connectivity.

“Would they retain more youth instead of having them move to larger communities? Would they attract more skilled workers, immigrants?” said Lavoie.

Half of the 30 community engagement coordinators have been hired and they will be trained in September by Cisco Canada to find out the region's needs and status for connectivity. Over the next five years, they will go back to the communities to see how the benchmark for connectivity has improved, and whether cities, towns, hospitals, schools, etc., are connecting together.

“We want to show that Southwestern Ontario is rebuilding its economy through the strategic use of broadband technology,” said Lavoie.